THE A.I. CADDIE ON YOUR PHONE We’ve used it... and it’s incredible

How Artificial Intelligence could change the way we play

Over 100 years ago almost every round of golf was played with a caddie, but that number has dramatically reduced over the past century to just three per cent of all rounds played. The latest innovation from Arccos may not be able to carry your clubs, but it aims to eradicate human guesswork to provide both optimal shot strategies and club selection with its latest upgrade – Caddie 2.0.

Taking into account your personal shottracking history, forecasted weather conditions, elevation changes and the historical performance of similar players, Caddie 2.0 combines artificial intelligence, machine learning and Microsoft’s Azure cloud to provide a tour-style stat analysis of your game, as well as offering an on-course strategy for every shot, on over 40,000 golf courses in the world.

Shots are measured using sensors in your grips which connect to the Arccos app on your phone (that you need to have in your pocket). From there, you can see how far you have to the green, and the app will recommend an optimum club strategy and at least one other choice based on the course conditions and data it has collected on you. We’ve tried it, and it’s pretty good!

How accurate is it?

There are 418 million GPS course-mapping data points and 26 billion time-stamped, geotagged data points on golfer behaviours in the Arccos system, with over a million rounds played. You currently need to play five rounds before you can unlock the caddie feature, which then becomes more accurate every time you use it.

How do I buy it?

There are three buying options for Arccos; Purchase the ‘Smart Sensors’ separately, buy a ‘Smart Set’ of Cobra clubs, or get ‘Smart Grips’ on pre-sale. The first option allows you to download the app for free, while the other two require you to buy a subscription.

Elevation indicator

The upgraded elevation feature provides precise incline and decline measurements from your position to any target, which is taken into consideration when the app provides “plays like” distances and your optimal strategy.